Power supply and electronic component maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday posted NT$40.78 billion (US$1.35 billion) in revenue for last month, rising 21.6 percent year-on-year, driven by growing demand for power and heat dissipation products used in artificial intelligence-related devices.
On a monthly basis, revenue dropped about 6 percent from NT$43.44 billion.
Cumulative revenue in the first four months rose 27.9 percent to NT$159.7 billion, Delta said in a statement.
Photo: CNA
Despite the decline, Delta maintained its revenue growth forecast for this quarter.
Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) told investors during the quarterly earnings conference last week that revenue this quarter would surpass the first quarter’s NT$118.92 billion, driven by front-loaded orders from US customers taking advantage of the 90-day pause of US “reciprocal” tariffs.
Although several local electronics makers have taken steps to build new US factories to avoid potential tariff hikes, Delta is still studying its feasibility as exports from Thailand to the US, while subject to 30 percent tariffs, would still be more cost-effective than operating a factory in the US, Cheng said.
About half of Delta’s production capacity is in China, but it is building five new factories in Thailand to diversify its manufacturing, in addition to its production sites in Taiwan and India.
Separately, notebook computer contract maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) yesterday said revenue dropped 19.4 percent year-on-year, or 18.3 percent month-on-month, to NT$62.29 billion last month.
US tariff policy uncertainty has made it difficult to gauge how much business would be affected going forward, Compal chairman Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said.
The company is considering building a factory in the US, possibly in Texas, and accelerating its deployment in Mexico, Chen said.
The details and timeline for the US factory plan are still under discussion, Chen said.
Following the New Taiwan dollar’s sharp appreciation, Chen said Compal would have to recognize some foreign exchange losses.
Compal is seeing an influx of front-loading and urgent orders, which is helping boost shipments, he said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to